Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Henjin no Salad Bowl

Short Synopsis: The 7th Princess of a royal line is hunted down, only to flee to our world where she ends up living and working with a detective named Sousuke.

Lenlo: It’s true, the Reverse Isekai is, on average, substantially better than the classic Isekai, if only because it’s easier to write someone being new and amazed by our modern world, making it seem interesting again, than it is to write a rich and engaging fantasy world. And so far, Salad Bowl continues to prove that true by being better than any Isekai I’ve seen so far this season. Not by a lot, it still has a lot of the same tropes and pointless ecchi scenes, and Salad Bowl feels like more of a weekly “feel good” show rather than something with a more long-term plot. Its “Princess from another world facing persecution” quickly devolves into “Young girl playing games and doing cute things”. Still, it is watchable! The girls have a bit of personality, and Livia ending up with/as a homeless person was actually kind of funny. I could see Salad Bowl being a solid pick for folks looking for a more wholesome, relaxed weekly anime. It’s not for me, but I think it’s good enough to be for someone.
Potential: 30%

Astro Note

Short Synopsis: A down-on-his-luck chef accepts a part time job at a boarding house full of quirky residents.

Wooper: First things first: if you plan to watch Astro Note, you should grab the [Okay-Subs] release, which fixes an aliasing issue present in the official stream. I downloaded and compared both versions, and the former is indeed much easier on the eyes. With that out of the way, let me just say that I really enjoyed this premiere. Astro Note won’t be a hit with wide audiences – both the speed of its presentation and its florid color design are too in-your-face for that – but as an homage to past anime romcoms, it’s tons of fun. The “beautiful widowed landlord” trope from Maison Ikkoku is the most obvious touchpoint here, as protagonist Takumi falls for the aproned Mira-san just as quickly as Godai fell for the similarly-costumed Kyoko-san in that classic series. Takumi and Godai even share a room number across the two works, but Takumi is thankfully less pathetic than the character who likely inspired him. He’s a great cook, immediately winning over the boarding house’s breakfast-obsessed lodgers, whose physical appearances and personalities are so far outside the box that I already want to know more about each of them. There’s a sci-fi twist here that I won’t spoil, though the intergalactic cold open (which not-so-successfully mimics the look of analog production) serves as a massive hint, so it’s not as though it’s some big secret. Still, the scene where it falls into place is fun for other reasons – and speaking of fun, the 80s-inspired ED (which I assume will become the OP going forward) is a total delight, with sugary female vocals and bouncy percussion playing over a plethora of playful character animation. I can’t wait to rewatch it at the start of each new episode this season.
Potential: 70%

Lenlo: I’m so confused, how did we go from space epic cold open to small quirky breakfast cooking show? And then back to a space epic? What even is Astro Note? Wooper does his best to answer up above, he’s pretty on the money. The cast is quirky and fun without being annoying, the designs are surprisingly expressive, the visuals call back to an older era of anime, and even with the aliasing problem Wooper talked about I found myself enjoying my time with it. The only issue I can see is that Astro Note strikes me as being in a similar vein as last seasons Torture Princess. Something that’s fun weekly, well produced, has a lot of good ideas, but eventually gets stuck in a rut and isn’t able to evolve or keep my interest for the entire season. I’d like to be wrong, maybe it commits to having an actual plot enough to slowly evolve the premise, like maybe Takumi figures out what’s going on eventually and helps out, or the cast each get their individual unique stories, I don’t know. Astro Note has a lot of potential there. But it needs to act on the potential or else it will grow stale, just like Torture Princess. Anyways, for now at least I’m going to keep on watching it each week and see where it goes.
Potential: 65%

WIND BREAKER

Short Synopsis: A highschool full of delinquents search for purpose in a society that rejects them, using their strength to defend those who cannot defend themselves.

Lenlo: I was pleasantly surprised by Wind Breaker. I went into this expecting nothing, surely after Bucchigiri wouldn’t get two decent delinquent shows in a row. Yet right away it comes in with this strong opening scene on the pressures of Japanese society, of the struggle to fit in and suppress your true self. This sets the tone for the entire episode, which is only furthered by our lead’s sort of crisis of identity where he sees himself as a delinquent unworthy of trust or friends because that’s how society sees/treats him. Of a guy trying to find value and purpose in his life through fighting, proving he’s better through force, the only thing he’s any good at. It worked surprisingly well by the end, showing how these delinquents carved a place for themselves while staying true to who they are. I appreciated how the MC didn’t try to hide anything, Wind Breaker made it clear what he wanted and, when presented for a chance at it, he leapt for it immediately, no “Will he join?” bullshit.. And you know what? The fights were actually pretty good too, I liked the full-body continuous shots where we actually got to enjoy some choreography. If Wind Breaker can keep this up, if it can avoid falling into the basic Shounen bullshit trap, I think it could become pretty good. I’m not guaranteeing it, maybe this was just a one-off and it falls into the gutter later. But as far as premiers go, I’ve enjoyed it a lot.
Potential: 75%

Bartender: Glass of God

Short Synopsis: A hotel seeks out a Bartender capable of making the perfect drink. Can they find such a man?

Lenlo: Bartender is in a weird place. I was really expecting a more episodic, “People come in and talk about their problems and the bartender basically gives them therapy via conversation and alcohol” kind of story. However instead it seems to have an actual… plot? With goals? And challenges? The thing opens on a bloody exam arc as employees at a hotel seek out a suitable bartender for the bar, failing every applicant because they can’t make the “Glass of God”, only to stumble upon our lead who is useless at everything other than bartending. And you know what? It kind of works. I don’t drink, so a lot of it flew over my head, but I enjoyed the detail that went into selecting and putting together the drinks. Making something light for someone who hasn’t eaten yet? A low alcohol Highball using hard ice so it isn’t watered down despite having less whiskey? The care that goes into every action? It feels like whoever wrote this is passionate about their drinks, because they put a lot of care into this stuff. Now sure, the animation and everything isn’t great. It has a few shots here and there that look decent, nothing amazing. But I would say Bartender is good enough to be worth checking out if you’re interested in passionate niche hobbies like bartending. Maybe it will go somewhere unexpected!
Potential: 60%

A Condition Called Love

Short Synopsis: The hottest guy in school falls for a plain-looking girl after she uses an umbrella to keep the snow out of his hair.

Wooper: There’s been a miniature wave of good romance anime released in the past last year – Skip and Loafer, Yamada-kun to Lv999, last season’s A Sign of Affection – and I thought A Condition Called Love (Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai) might continue that trend. Despite my optimism, however, it seems Lenlo did the right thing in excluding it from the season preview, because this was a poor start to what feels like an ultra plain high school romance. “Plain” applies to nearly every aspect of the show: the character designs (especially the female lead), the animation (the brief lap-running scene was pitiful), and especially the premise (pretty boy falls for girl he’s never spoken to because she was nice to him one time). That ‘romance ex machina’ criticism is one that got lobbed at a lot of shoujo romcoms back in the day, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a series that deserves it more than Condition. After the protagonist shields Bishounen-san from the snow one afternoon, we cut straight to him asking her out the very next day, and it only ramps up from there. He continues inserting himself into her life at every opportunity, cuts his hair and stops wearing earrings to please her, and even goes back to school at night to sift through the snow in search of her missing hairpin. The second he said he could “die happy” if he got to see her smile, we passed the point of no return. Even hardcore shoujo fanatics should skip this one – leave it for the kids just getting into the genre.
Potential: 1%

Lenlo: Let this be a lesson Wooper, I’m always right. Maybe not immediately, but eventually time proves me right. And that’s exactly what happened here. I could tell by looking at the studio and staff behind Hananoi-kun that it was going to be mediocre. And here we are. Being serious for a moment, Wooper sums it up well. Everything about the lead is kind of just creepy. Dude completely changes his life, everything about himself, and forces his way into a girl’s life, all because she held an umbrella over him once while it snowed. That a healthy relationship does not make! On top of that, it also just doesn’t look good. As said above, it’s plain in every sense of the word, never doing anything to try and stand out nor catch the eye. As someone who was surprised by Yubisaki last season, pleasantly so, this does not measure up at all to what we just got done watching.
Potential: 0%

Yuru Camp S3

Short Synopsis: Rin goes on yet another solo camping trip, while back at school, the other club members plan a minor outing of their own.

Wooper: I did a little bit of Yuru Camp blogging in early 2021, and since this sequel has an all-new staff behind it, I figured I’d pop in either to encourage or warn off fellow fans from watching the new season. Happily, the transition was a seamless one, as this premiere felt like coming home – or more appropriately, returning to a favorite campsite. We’ve got the same well-lit backgrounds, the same talking pine cones, and the same rustic soundtrack as before (musician Akiyuki Tateyama is one of the few key staff members to have made the jump between seasons). New director Shin Tosaka has no prior experience with the franchise, but he made a great first impression, smoothly linking one of Rin’s present day Mt. Fuji viewings with her memories of her first camping trip with her grandpa. The DIY alcohol stove experiment in the second half provided the opportunity to show off the series’ new character designs – if I had to make a comparison, I’d say they make the girls look a smidge younger and more naive than before, but they’re so similar in motion that I can hardly count it as a negative. There’s also a post-credits scene where Nadeshiko’s childhood friend Ayano can be seen texting Rin from within her own tent, promising a future meet-up between the two sightseeing fiends. Oh, and the OP has some truly excellent shot transitions, making use of a borderless art style that’s quite refreshing – I’d recommend checking it out, even if (for some reason) you’re not a fan of this soothing series.
Potential: 60%

Re:Monster

Short Synopsis: Man dies and is isekai’d as a lowly goblin, proceeds to level up Slime Isekai style only worse in every conceivable way.

Lenlo: Look, I get it, you want a “Reincarnated as a monster” Isekai. It’s a slightly interesting twist on the usual OP MC Isekai power fantasy. But just… Go watch Reincarnated as a Slime instead. Seriously, Slime Isekai is better in basically every way. Production, OST, power system, world, civilization-style-advancement, everything. And I don’t mean it’s just a little better. Slime Isekai has Re:Monster beaten by leaps and strides. I swear, after a full episode I don’t even know what the MC’s character is meant to be. He’s just a hyper competent emotionless slab of cardboard. Seriously, don’t bother with this, it’s the most nothingburger Isekai I’ve seen in a long time.
Potential: 0%

The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases

Short Synopsis: Random person is Isekai/Reincarnated as a Duke’s son, sandbags his abilities to get disowned, proceeds to live the life of an explorer building a harem and defeating monsters with his OP abilities.

Lenlo: I swear to god anime can hear what I’m saying and is actively trying to prove me wrong. I started watching this right after I finished watching/writing up Re:Monster above, so these are back to back impressions for me. And boy god have I just hopped from one mediocre, lifeless, creatively bankrupt Isekai to another. At least Re:Monster is trying to follow in a better Isekais footsteps, Banished Former Hero is just a basic ass Isekai in every way that doesn’t even pick a subgenre of Isekai to dive into. The MC is OP from the start, misunderstood by those around him, and instantly pulls three Waifu’s into his harem within 5 minutes of getting kicked out of his home. With Re:Monster I said to just watch Slime Isekai instead. Well with Banished Former Hero, just watch Re:Monster instead, and follow that chain up until you get to something not shit. Dear lord, this season is not looking good. Maybe Spice and Wolf can save me…
Potential: 0%

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf

Short Synopsis: Remake of Spice and Wolf, Lawrence is a traveling merchant selling various goods from a horse-drawn cart. One day, he arrives at a village and meets a beautiful girl with the ears and tail of an animal! Her name is Holo the Wisewolf and she brings bountiful harvests. She wishes to return to her homeland, and Lawrence offers to take her. Now, the once-lonely merchant and the once-lonely wisewolf begin their journey north.

Lenlo: I can’t quite figure out whether or not I like this Spice and Wolf remake. Visually it’s both better and worse, the modernized character designs losing some of their charm and the colors feeling flatter. At the same time though, it moves way better than the original did, actually feeling animated for most of the episode. Similarly, it feels like it’s suffering from the Brotherhood issue a bit where it tries to blaze through the early story a bit to get to the new shit. It’s of course possible that it’s just a first episode jitters and it will settle down as it goes, that it will figure out its rhythm. That would be nice! Plus I do enjoy hearing Holo’s voice again, I could listen to her whisper to me forever. Anyways to make a long story short, I’m not sold on this Spice and Wolf remake yet but I’m interested enough to keep watching.
Potential: 50%

Welcome all, to the start of the Spring Season! And would you look at that, we have Wooper back to suffer with me help me report on all of these shows! Such a great guy. Gonna get these out as fast as we can for you. We are skipping some, whether they be sequels to shows neither of us have watched or so creatively bankrupt we don’t even need to watch them to know. For the most part though, we’re going to hit all the big ones, so look forward to it. Now lets dive in!

One Room, Hi Atari Futsuu, Tenshi Tsuki.

Short Synopsis: A highschooler living alone wakes up one day to find a hot angel girl on his balcony. What else is he to do but have her move in and get plenty of panty shots?

Lenlo: I dunno, One Room seems cute enough? It’s a pretty standard ecchi-romance built off of an absurd premise that takes every chance it has to either sexualize the lead girl or drop some ecchi jokes like with the magazines. There’s nothing particularly interesting or unique about the series. Could you find some value in it? Sure, probably. Maybe. It’s not terribly produced, and the girl is cute enough, so if all you want is an ecchi rom-com for the season this will probably do you fine. For me though? An easy pass. There’s no substance to One Room. If I wanted ecchi, I’d just go watch porn. Or better yet, use AI and make whatever I wanted that day. Suffice to say, I won’t be watching this.
Potential: 1%

Gods’ Games We Play

Short Synopsis: A goddess recruits a promising rookie gamer to aid her in returning to the immortal realm by clearing 10 straight challenges from the gods.

Wooper: It’s been a while since I’ve participated in a round of Star Crossed first impressions, and shows like Gods’ Games We Play are a big reason why; there are simply too many premieres each season that suck major ass. But I made my bed by offering to pop in for a couple weeks, and now I have to lie in it, starting with this game-themed light novel adaptation that’s heavy on exposition and light on everything else. Gods’ Games is set in an alternate universe where virtually all of humanity is fixated on clearing challenges issued by the gods in the hopes that their wishes will be granted. We’re given glimpses of contestants fleeing alien creatures down tiled runways and being whipped by giant salamanders’ flaming tails, but they merely burst into holographic triangles when they “die.” There’s no risk of such a mild fate befalling our protagonist, of course, because he’s such a famous God Gamer that he has to wear glasses in public to prevent people from recognizing him. He’s swiftly tasked with watching over a goddess (who bears a striking resemblance to his childhood gaming mentor), and they play the world’s most needlessly complicated memory game as an icebreaker. Meanwhile, the show drops something like eight poorly phrased rules about the godly challenges they’ll soon take on, killing any excitement about the competition before it can even begin. After slogging through this premiere, the only game I want to play is one that carries the risk of blindness, so that if I lose, I never have to watch a turd like this again.
Potential: 0%

Lenlo: As always, I greatly appreciate Wooper stepping in and returning so I don’t have to watch shit like this alone. At least with him on board I have someone else to bitch too about it. Plus, he actually writes justifications and long-winded reasonings for why something sucks, freeing me up to be an asshole and make vapid jokes about how lifeless, uninspired and poorly produced the series is. Seriously, does this show even have an AD? I swear to god the characters look different in every scene, and the colors look washed out and dull. Anyways, suffice to say that Gods’ Games is the first completely unoriginal washout of the Spring season. Thanks Wooper, you chose a fun one to return on.
Potential: 0%

Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?

Short Synopsis: The invention of 7G cellular service shatters reality as we know it and plunges the world into a dystopian future. Will 4 girls be able to traverse this weird and possibly dangerous land inside an old train to find their friend?

Lenlo: Train Girls is… weird? I don’t actually know, or understand, what is happening in this show? And if I’m being honest, I’m not sure Train Girls knows either. On its surface Train Girls seems like a basic Cute Girls Doing Cute Things kind of show, though definitely on the weirder end of them. It’s rather light hearted, colorful, the girls are color coded for your convenience, and the whole premise is built to remove adults from the equation by turning everyone over the age of 21 into animals. At the same time though… There are moments where it gets creepy. Where a bear tries to seriously eat a little girl, played straight, or shots of bloody handprints peppering a dented and beaten armored truck, or the sight of all the different planets in the sky against a blood red backdrop. I could easily see Train Girls turning into another Gakkougurashi. Or, barring that, an advertisement for trains. If nothing else though, it’s clear it isn’t just your bog standard CGDCT anime, though that will definitely have its place. I’m not convinced it’s worth watching in full yet, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it and may pick it up depending on what people say after it gets a few episodes in. Oh, and it also happens to be the best looking thing I’ve seen this season so far. Not that that’s saying much.
Potential: 40%

Hello everyone! Apologies for the delay on this, I’ve been playing a lot of Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising. I made it to A4! Woo! Anyways, this is a special week as Aidan is making a return to help cover Sengoku Youko! So if that’s a show your interested in, read to the end and see what he thinks. I’ll admit, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the second episode, so I might pick it back up again if that continues. Anyways, read on!

Dungeon Meshi- 3 [Living Armor]

This was easily the best Dungeon Meshi episode yet, and exactly what I was looking for from the series. The food stuff is still there, it’s relevant and we still get a bunch of unique monster dishes at the end. But the focus is much more on the characters, Laios specifically, their past, and conquering the unique challenges the dungeon presents. Starting the episode with his sword breaking only to wind up in a hall that had challenged him previously in his career, then ending with them not only conquering it but discovering something new about it and gaining a new sword, was great. And the design of the Living Armor? How it’s actually a bunch of mollusks inside mimicking human movement like muscles, and you have to deal with it like a shellfish? That’s an absolutely brilliant idea, inspired even, and so much more “magical” and interesting than just “The armor is enchanted”. This is the first time Dungeon Meshi has impressed me with it’s world building and monster design, it really was great. And of course to top it off, I believe this was the Kai Ikarashi episode we’ve been expecting for a while, the same guy who did Cyberpunk: Edgerunners episode 6. And surprise surprise, it looked stellar. Dungeon Meshi looks decent to good on a normal day, but this episode knocked it out of the park. All around a fantastic week for the show, I’m bought in now.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 2” →

BUCCHIGIRI?!

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Arajin Tomoshibi’s reunion with his old pal Matakara Asamine takes an unexpected turn when they stumble into a brawl with the toughest guys in town. And just when you thought things couldn’t get weirder, a colossal genie decides to drop in. Brace yourself for the ultimate showdown. It’s the clash of the cool and the magical!

By all rights, Bucchigiri should not be good. It’s over the top, garishly colored, and absolutely ridiculous. Every character is a caricature. It’s everything we’ve seen multiple times before in series like that delinquent harem show from a few seasons back. And yet… It’s so expressively animated that the over the top nature just works, it fits. Every scene, every reaction, every dialogue, is punctuated with these bold and exaggerated animations that I can’t help but love it. And color wise? Everything from the skin to the hair is saturated such that even bright green hair or yellow shirts don’t feel that out of place with the rest of their outfits or skin tones. I’m honestly shocked at how strong this episode is. Maybe this is just me overreacting to one of the few good premiers in a season of mediocrity, but I can’t help but love what Bucchigiri is doing. Even the MCs main desire, to lose his virginity, is played so straight as a justifiable reason to stand up and push back against abuse, that I can’t help but cheer him on. I sincerely hope Bucchigiri manages to keep this up, that the production doesn’t fall off a cliff, that the story doesn’t become just another weekly battle series with a braindead plot. Because right now? This is some of the most fun I’ve had this season.

Potential: 75%

Snack Basue

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The gag comedy manga centers on a bar in Sapporo’s North 24th neighborhood, five stations away from the Susukino business district. There, the bar’s proprietor, junior proprietor, odd regular customers, and its share of walk-ins recount their strange lives.

Something about Snack Basue just seems… off? Is this vector animated? All of the movement feels so… stilted. You kind of get used to it after a while, but it’s definitely not very appealing. And that sort of applies to the show as a whole. It’s trying to be this conversational, talk-show style of comedy, but it relies so much on the awkwardness of this first meeting, on the experience of going to a snack bar, and the absurdity of some of its cast, that I felt more weirded out than I did amused. Ultimately I leave this episode wondering what it was I just watched, and why it ever got animated to begin with.

Potential: 0%

Meiji Gekken: 1874

Short Synopsis (Anilist): By 1874, seven years have passed since the end of the samurai era. A former samurai, Shizuma Orikasa works as a rickshaw driver in Tokyo while looking for his fiancée, Sumie Kanomata, who went missing during the Boshin War. Shizuma thwarts an assassination attempt and joins the newly established police department, where he’ll fight to stop dark forces from overthrowing the government.

Look I love the Boshin war and the beginning of the Meiji era, it’s a fascinating time in history. Between westernization and industrialization, Japanese society changed so much so rapidly that large swaths of the country were left behind. And Meiji Gekken has some of that in its DNA, what with a former samurai MC trying to make a life in this new era. He’s fine! But where it falls short is in its conflict, its villains, the reaction to this new era. To show what I mean, think back to the recent remake of Ruroni Kenshin. There the villains meant something, even if they were only around for an episode. They represented ideals, past ways of life, specters of past deeds, men and women who couldn’t find a place in this new era and were shunned because of it. Here though… It’s this sort of bland “revolution”, like Meiji Gekken is banking on a classic “return to the old ways” sort of narrative. But it muddies the water by also introducing foreigners like the British to the mix, making it no longer an internal struggle for the identity of the nation? I’m reading a lot into it this early, but what I’m saying is that Meiji Gekken feels like its using this transitional period in Japanese history as an aesthetic for a classic battle-series setup, more than as a meaningful setting for its narrative. And that kind of turns me off, despite the MC otherwise being decent. Go watch the Kenshin remake instead.

Potential: 10%

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Short Synopsis: Modern Military Mecha crossed with Tokusatsu, will it be serious or jokey, who knows!

Bravern is… weird. It’s split between this “Modern military mecha against aliens” and “silly tokusatsu mecha”. On one hand, it’s kind of funny how straight it plays it. Characters have no idea what’s going on or why tokusatsu music is blaring from the speakers on the giant robot. That makes the finale work surprisingly well. On the other hand, the buildup to that point, the setup with aliens coming to Earth and killing a bunch of people, that all felt like it came from a completely different show. I honestly don’t think Bravern can balance these two aspects, I don’t think it can simultaneously be Eighty Six and a silly tokusatsu show. It’s going to have to pick one and stick with it. And if I’m being honest, I hope it sticks with the tokusatsu and only occasionally uses the “drama” to set up some jokes. Because there’s no way they are fitting a sentient giant robot that plays its own theme music on blast for the whole neighborhood into any sort of serious narrative. Anyways, while I expect it to flounder as it goes, for now it was kind of fun.

Potential: 40%

Delusional Monthly Magazine

Short Synopsis: Man joins magazine company, gets sucked into weird secret organization bullshit with magic animal people?

There is legitimately no other way to describe Monthly Magazine other than “Boring with extreme prejudice”. Absolutely nothing about this show works together. From the weird “MoPARs” magic items to one of our leads being the most garish tiger-man I’ve ever seen. It even has that thing where every character has a different hair color so you can easily differentiate them rather than giving them any sort of personality. This is one of the easiest skips of the season for me.

Potential: 0%

Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita

Short Synopsis: Little girl born in a fantasy world has no special skills and must survive alone. Along the way she meets a little slime, and together they venture forth!

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how decent Saijaku was. It’s still a fantasy world with slimes, skills, healing potions, all that shit. But it’s not an OP MC isekai where the lead is teleported to another world and given a deceptively powerful ability that everyone thinks is weak. So it already has a step up there. In fact I was actually kind of surprised by how cute it was. Ivy talking to the audience, breaking the fourth wall to answer some questions, is obvious but it still feels better than a load of “convenient” exposition. And the whole scene with the weak slime, it being this smiling blob that’s really more of a mascot than a companion, was surprisingly emotional. I don’t know if Saijaku will take this “Weak slime and starless skill” thing and somehow turn it into an OP MC show, I really hope it doesn’t. Because if it can dodge that it might just be a solid and cute fantasy show for the season. For now though, I might stick with it for another episode or two.

Potential: 55%

This is the second of two Impressions posts today, so scroll down for the first!

30-sai made Doutei da to Mahou Tsukai ni Nareru Rashii

Short Synopsis: 30 year old virgin gains telepathy powers, discovers local chad in his office has the hots for him.

Oh the jokes I could make about this show… But for the sake of at least trying to be fair, I’ll refrain. 30-sai looks like a pretty straightforward BL. At the very least it isn’t trying to hide it or queerbait its audience by only implying it and never committing, it’s pretty upfront about the characters feelings from the first minute. For many I figure that alone will make it worth a watch, that community gets strung along a lot. What makes it even better for them though is that 30-sai is actually kind of… wholesome about it all? Like the magic telepathy power seems stupid at first but it’s really only there as a vehicle for the romance, letting the series skip past all the bullshit romance communication tropes of “I’m not sure” and “That comment could easily be misconstrued”. As someone that hates those, I’m thankful! And that’s basically my feelings on the show in a nutshell: I’m thankful that 30-sai is an upfront, no nonsense or weird fetishization, whole BL romance. I won’t watch it, because I’m not interested in BL. But I know that my friend who loves the stuff adores the show. So between that and how I actually finished the episode, I feel pretty comfortable recommending this to fans of the genre.

Also gaining wizard powers from being a virgin for 30 years is just funny, what in god’s name were they thinking with that title.

Potential: 50%

Sengoku Youko

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The world is divided into two factions: humans and monsters called katawara. Despite being a katawara, Tama loves humans and vows to protect them from evil, even if it means fighting her own kind. Her brother Jinka, however, hates humans, despite mostly being one. The siblings are joined by a cowardly swordsman named Shinsuke, who wants to learn how to become strong.

I don’t understand Sengoku Youko’s production. Most of the time it looks washed out, with weird gradients for hair or like someone took an airbrush to all of the colors. Then it randomly gets so much more vibrant, like the bright colors of magic in the action scenes, or that one scene at the river where the girls shirt went from a milky-burnt orange to a much more colorful vibrant shade. What I’m getting at is that Sengoku Youko’s production annoys me, as does its narrative. It really wants to be this fun naive action series with a quirky cast and jokes, stuff like the demon being the helmet the bandit was wearing, but most of it just comes off as annoying caricatures and bad jokes. I can’t think of a reason to watch this over going back to the early 2000’s InuYasha. That did this same sort of stuff but with a far more compelling cast and plot hook. What I’m getting at is that this is all a long winded way of saying Sengoku Youko bored me by the half-way point, and it didn’t get any better by the end. I want to be done writing these first impressions. Help me lord.

Potential: 5%

The Witch and the Beast

Short Synopsis: A mage and a beast hunt the witch who cursed them, seeking to undo it and get revenge.

It’s a little sad how weak Majo to Yajuu’s action is. Everything else feels good, the leads have good chemistry, the world isn’t a stereotypical isekai-style fantasy, it even flipped how I thought the title would go by making the female lead the Beast and the male lead the Witch/Mage. That was nice! I was engaged for most of the episode, the male lead especially pulled me in with his dialogue and VA’s delivery. It’s just the action is… Well between “pew pew” lasers, impactless punches and pretty bland magic (outside the crows, those were cool), it doesn’t look great. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, the action is probably the least important part of the show. But it is a damn shame that despite seemingly having everything else going for it, Majo to Yajuu tripped at the last hurdle. Still, I’ll keep up with it.

Potential: 60%

This is the first of two Impressions posts today, so keep an eye out for the second in case you miss it!

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord

Short Synopsis: A girl is sucked into her favorite otome game as the villain and must do everything she can to win the boy and avoid her fate!

I’ll admit, Villainess Lv 99 actually got me. I hadn’t read the summary and so fully bought into Alicia as our MC and the whole “I’ve been sucked into my favorite Otome game as the protagonist” thing. And you know what? While watching it, it wasn’t terrible. Rather dull, sure, but that’s mostly because this genre isn’t my favorite. But I was actually kind of impressed at the way it used its environment. Take for instance the rooftop scene, I fully expected them to just ignore the window, for it to not matter at all, when logically they should fall as they walk over it. And you know what? They did! That, along with a few others, felt nice to see. And the switch to our primary PoV character after we first meet her assuming Alicia would be our lead? I think it worked. Sure at the end of the day it’s still an Otome game OP MC isekai, lets not set the expectation too high. But if that’s your thing, Villainess Lv 99 seems like a solid choice.

Potential: 30%

Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp

Short Synopsis: Fantasy princess dies, isekai’s to our world, becomes a doctor, dies again, isekai’s back to her own world before her first death, and starts it all over.

Holy crap this is bad. Doctor Elise is an Isekai of an Isekai, where a fantasy princess dies, comes to our world, trains as a doctor, dies again, and then gets sent back to her world 10 years before she died the first time. If you want a story about a terrible person learning to be a better person, why not just… Do that instead of all of this convoluted bullshit? And to top it all off? It doesn’t look good at all. This one is a hard pass, there are better isekai this season. God doesn’t that feel weird to say.

Potential: 0%

Metallic Rouge

Short Synopsis: Mecha tokusatsu on mars. That’s all I’ve got, it really doesn’t explain much more than that.

This first episode of Metallic Rouge felt really really awkward. It’s stuck in this middle ground of being a mecha tokusatsu and a transhumanist think-piece on AI/Cyborgs on whether or not they are truly human. On one hand, it looks cool. That fight at the end was fun, looked great, the 2D mecha designs were fantastic, and the music worked well. On the other hand, this world feels like an amalgamation of many different ideas that don’t really fit together yet, from the “Immortal Nine” to AI being second class citizens basically and needing a special nectar daily to survive, but that nectar is also apparently worth a lot of money and humans can drink it too for some reason? How are these AI affording this while working menial labor jobs and such? And that’s not even mentioning the characters. Can you honestly tell me anyones motivation at any point in this episode? Rouge? Naomi? The weird and mediocre blonde villain dude who dresses like a jester? Because I can’t. Metallic Rouge feels like a show with a lot of ideas that, as of this first episode, it has no idea how to communicate. I’ll give it a shot for another few episodes, see if this was just a really awkward pilot. But I’m not expecting a lot from it.

Potential: 40%

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

Short Synopsis: A lowly bronze-ranked adventurer travels off the beaten path, gets killed by a dragon, and comes back as a Skeleton. Is this the beginning of his journey to greatness?!

Oops, missed this one when it aired. Unwanted Undead was… Fine? I was sort of hopeful at the start, the idea of an adventurer turned undead, the world passing them by as they decomposed, forced by their status as a monster to clash with those they once called friends, it seemed like a decent enough idea. But then Unwanted Undead sort of just… sidestepped that? Turns out he became a skeleton in only like… 24 hours? And if he kills enough stuff he can level up into greater undead, eventually gaining the ability to speak and act human, etc etc. It feels like the series is taking everything interesting, everything creative about its premise, and slowly but surely writing it off until the series becomes a rather basic OP MC fantasy series. I’m going to give it another episode or so to see if it does anything with it, but I’m not particularly hopeful right now.

Potential: 30%

Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san

Short Synopsis: Event Super Sentai villains need a day off, this one just so happens to enjoy looking at Pandas.

Do you remember that one anime from a few seasons ago about a Super Sentai ranger falling in love with a monster on the opposite side? Well imagine that, take away the romance, and swap the leading role to the villain and you have Kyuujitsu. The entire thing is wholesome interactions built on an intrinsically unwholesome/evil character. And you know what? It’s… Fine? It’s basically the same sort of genre as that Princess torture show I mentioned in the last first impression. The kind where you’re supposed to sit back, chuckle at the absurdity of the situation, and sort of just chill out while absolutely nothing stressful happens on screen. If that’s what you want I think Kyuujitsu fits the bill. Personally it’s not my thing, and even if it was the torture princess show is just better in every way I feel. Maybe pick this up if you want a male lead instead of a female one I suppose.

Potential: 10%

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!

Short Synopsis: When an engagement is broken off a princess must find her own way in life, over and over and over again as she resets to that moment each time she dies.

Where do I really begin with this… On the one hand, having a time loop OP MC with a female lead is kind of nice, it tastes slightly different, like getting vanilla bean ice cream instead of just vanilla. I like that across all her many loops she’s grown a backbone and isn’t hesitating to speak out and push back, it’s appreciated. On the other hand… There’s nothing really new here. Hell, she gets asked to marry the big bad in episode one. I imagine the whole show is going to be about them falling in love and her working to prevent whatever big war he plunges the world into, only for him to reveal the war is necessary for some vaguely good reason that she has to struggle over. I feel like I can already map out all of the arcs it will have. And on top of that? It just doesn’t look very good. I don’t know, something about the lighting, the faces, the hair textures, it all looks off to me. Maybe you can get something out of it, it’s certainly better than a lot of the other stuff I’ve seen in the season and isn’t aggressively bad in any way, it just doesn’t stand out is all.

Potential: 20%